Democracy was something new and experimental and certainly still influenced by those that would have been part of an aristocracy or oligarchy. Many of the city-states in ancient Greece cycled through these various forms of government as dissatisfaction with the current form of government or institution by a conquering party would implement a change. While these were all considered different in name they seemed to serve the wealthy and influential. Even democracy was often considered controlled by individuals, as Thucydides said of Pericles’ control over the Demos in Athens (Blackwell, 2003, para. 4). As there appeared to be so much instability in the governments of Ancient Greek city-states it seems like the identification of any individual system was dependent upon the person viewing it. And often was some combination of two forms. The oligarchy of Sparta might well have considered themselves an aristocracy. What might be a monarchy to one is a tyranny to another, what is a democracy to some may be a farce of an aristocracy to another. This is something that we still see with discussions of governments
Democracy was something new and experimental and certainly still influenced by those that would have been part of an aristocracy or oligarchy. Many of the city-states in ancient Greece cycled through these various forms of government as dissatisfaction with the current form of government or institution by a conquering party would implement a change. While these were all considered different in name they seemed to serve the wealthy and influential. Even democracy was often considered controlled by individuals, as Thucydides said of Pericles’ control over the Demos in Athens (Blackwell, 2003, para. 4). As there appeared to be so much instability in the governments of Ancient Greek city-states it seems like the identification of any individual system was dependent upon the person viewing it. And often was some combination of two forms. The oligarchy of Sparta might well have considered themselves an aristocracy. What might be a monarchy to one is a tyranny to another, what is a democracy to some may be a farce of an aristocracy to another. This is something that we still see with discussions of governments